I don't see any reason to apologize. She didn't even do as well as Kimmie Meissner did in Torino. Did she do better than Emily Hughes? I don't remember. She still has a very juniorish quality to her skating. She needs someone to do for her what Frank did for Gracie. And she needs to get rid of her mother as her coach. If it were up to me, I might have sent her to the Olympics, but I would have sent Mirai to Worlds.

Polina might not have placed as well as Kimmie or Emily, but she did score higher. The field is currently much deeper than it was in 2006.

I think what excites me about Polina, and makes me optimistic that she won't fail as she grows, is the size, height, and air position of her jumps. They are already enormous, airy, and she looks like she has all the time in the world to land them. It's a great technique that should stand up to the body changes in her future.

She was robbed of competing in the Team SP event, and thus, a bronze medal.

I would have personally selected Gold for the SP and Edmunds for the FS, considering the Nationals results and the fact that in the past Gold was more likely to skate a clean SP than a clean FS. But then I guess I can understand why USFS picked Wagner given her 'resume'.

What bothers me about this is the lack of consistency. USFS would always go with Nationals results until they got 'the wrong result.' Pick a clear and transparent rule and stick to it. But then, this is a discussion that has been done to death already in 324353 different threads.

Originally Posted by hippomoomin

My only concern is how much taller she will get. She is now the same height as Gracie, and she will probably gets one inch or two in the future.

From what I heard, she has already had a big growth spurt so maybe she won't grow much taller now.

Originally Posted by b-man

No one, not Wagner supporters, or Nagasu supporters said Edmunds couldn't skate or wouldn't perform in Sochi.

There were a lot of posts that belittled Edmunds' skating ability and achievements saying that whatever she has accomplished so far 'didn't count' because it wasn't performed in Senior ISU competitions so her Olympic performance was completely uncertain and it was basically like sending somebody who's never competed before. Well, it did count and at Olympics, she did skate at a level as high as she has shown so far this season.

Originally Posted by pangtongfan

FWIW I think Nagasu would have placed the same or lower as Edmunds did in Sochi (probably lower)

It's extremely unlikely that she would have placed the same. Edmunds got 183.25 in Sochi and that's a score that Nagasu hasn't even got near this season at an international competition. The closest she has got was 175.37 at Rostelecom Cup and that's almost 8 points behind. Her other results were 141.71 at NHK Trophy and 164.51 at Finlandia Trophy. At her last competition, 4CC, she got 159.78.

Originally Posted by R.D.

Not to be grim, but I remember people saying the same thing about Nagasu 4 years ago...

Edmunds seems to have a pretty solid jumping technique, though, so she has decent chances at having a long-term senior career. It looks like she's been in good hands and her coaches didn't go for 'shortcuts.' But of course who knows what can happen? She could still potentially grow a lot, she could develop an injury, everything is possible.

Originally Posted by louisa05

Polina is adorable and talented, but still quite juniorish.

She's lacking a certain refinement to her movement - that's for sure - but then she had pretty decent choreography and moved in character and IIRC also in time of the music in both of her programs and that's something that a lot of 'senior' skaters, including the current Olympic champion, don't have so .

Originally Posted by jenaj

She didn't even do as well as Kimmie Meissner did in Torino. Did she do better than Emily Hughes?

In terms of the final placement, no (Meissner was 6th and Hughes was 7th). In terms of how she skated, yes. The level has been exceptionally high at these Olympics (and it's increased a lot in Ladies skating in general).

Ashley's performance at the Olympics really would have deserved to win Worlds in 2012, though. The field has definitely become much stronger.

Her point total from Sochi would have placed her 1st at 2012 Worlds (and 4th last year).

I remember she performed very similarly at 4CCs that year and won that, beating Mao Asada. Too bad she couldn't replicate it at Worlds. Definitely a case of peaking too soon there. She really did squander an excellent chance at a world medal there and who knows if she'll ever get another shot like that again. Perhaps this year, but I don't see clean Wagner performances winning at all...or even medaling unless it is a "splatfest" (post-Oly worlds tend to be like that, though). Actually, I even have my doubts as to whether she can skate as well as she did at the Olympics, but that's another topic.